Friday, 13 January 2012
Christmas has just gone away. I guess everyone got many gifts from Santa and they have liked it all. And Josh McEachran is perhaps happy with his gifts too. I guess he had stuffed himself with lot of food this Christmas to gain some flesh for his slim body. So it was a happy time for him like every year, I hope......But was he really all around happy after this Christmas? I can guess he wasn't.
Our 18-year old prodigy had found it hard to break into the first team this season, and that was pretty much expected and unexpected at the same time. Maybe there are still frailties in our midfield, there is the same creativity problem down the middle, and you can see it more against the relatively weaker sides, who tend to play a low block. But still its one of those same stories for our youths, and McEachran is not an exception in that tale. Josh loves this club, as he is playing here from the age of 8, and perhaps he was overjoyed when the number 20 was printed on his back of the Chelsea shirt. But still the gloom remained as he hardly got the games to prove that number.
But certainly, he has got something to smile about now. A loan deal with Swansea, is likely to take place for him for the rest of the season. Its currently stalled because of injuries to midfielders like Malouda and Mikel, as there are not enough backups. So we all expect Joshy to be at the Liberty Stadium after this weekend's Sunderland match.
Here are some quotes from Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers, taken from a BBC article, regarding the McEachran loan deal, in the picture below.
Of course he will get more playing time over there, as we all expect it. Our players have got it hard to complete a successful loan spell for all these years. Let's have our fingers crossed, and hope the kid gets enough games. If he tuck in some goals, create some assists, or create some chances, then we can finally say its a successful loan spell. We had found it hard to replace the Legendary Lampard down the years, but his ageing compounded with his lack of pace, had made the urgency of a replacement more significant. If Josh returns with a potential to replace the Legend, we will all have our lengthy dream come true.
Certainly, this can be a better Christmas gift for Josh, as I think. If be succeeds there, at Wales, I can bet you this loan deal will be the Christmas Carols that will be a music to his ears for years to come.
Up The Chels..
If you liked this article, you can follow me on twitter, @ChelseaViewer
Our 18-year old prodigy had found it hard to break into the first team this season, and that was pretty much expected and unexpected at the same time. Maybe there are still frailties in our midfield, there is the same creativity problem down the middle, and you can see it more against the relatively weaker sides, who tend to play a low block. But still its one of those same stories for our youths, and McEachran is not an exception in that tale. Josh loves this club, as he is playing here from the age of 8, and perhaps he was overjoyed when the number 20 was printed on his back of the Chelsea shirt. But still the gloom remained as he hardly got the games to prove that number.
But certainly, he has got something to smile about now. A loan deal with Swansea, is likely to take place for him for the rest of the season. Its currently stalled because of injuries to midfielders like Malouda and Mikel, as there are not enough backups. So we all expect Joshy to be at the Liberty Stadium after this weekend's Sunderland match.
Here are some quotes from Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers, taken from a BBC article, regarding the McEachran loan deal, in the picture below.
Certainly, this can be a better Christmas gift for Josh, as I think. If be succeeds there, at Wales, I can bet you this loan deal will be the Christmas Carols that will be a music to his ears for years to come.
Up The Chels..
If you liked this article, you can follow me on twitter, @ChelseaViewer
Friday, 13 January 2012
Tags :
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Josh McEachran,
Loan Deals,
Swansea
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Kakuta Secures Dijon Move
This is how Michael Ballack described this talent from France when he played shoulder to shoulder with him in the reserves game for Chelsea after coming out of injury. This is the same player for whom Chelsea dug deeper and deeper and went through many troubles to sign him and bring to Cobham. This is the same player which is (yes, "IS") dubbed as Black Zidane.
In case you still are unable to recall his name, to be honest, you are not the one to blamed. I will blame circumstances for that matter. His name is Gael Kakuta, Aged 20. Bought from Lens, the then manager of the club Marx was quoted as saying,
Such a talent, such a talent he is! and still, the luck decided to show only back to him for the entire of 2011, where he went on loan to Fulham for first part of the season; scoring one in (plentiful?) 7 appearances for the cottagers, most of it coming off the bench. at the start of this season he was sent out on loan again to Premier League Club, this time in the custody of Owen Coyle, who has very interesting track record of nurturing and polishing the young stars in the name of Jack Wilshere and our very own Daniel Sturridge. We all hoped that this loan spell will enable us to witness this phenomenon, but it was just not about to happen. We all and the lad as well were frustrated with the outcome. At Reebok Stadium he only managed to break into first team for 4 times. Yes, you heard it right, only 4 times.
The player of his age who is full of trickery and talent had to endure whole of last year on the bench at two different clubs, waiting for the manager to call his name and stepping up on the field and show the world what he is made up off. but to his and everyone of us disappointment it didn't happen. and sad thing is people went to such an extent to call him flop and all the other rubbish.
Finally, as the calendar changed its year, he came back home to Chelsea and was immediately linked with a move to host of French clubs, particularly Dijon and Lille. And today he completed to shift his base temporarily to Dijon till the end of the season. Dijon is struggling in Ligue one at the moment, standing at 16th place and barely managing to stay out of relegation zone and still he chose to sign for them. and if you think of it, he was taken a right decision by joining such club. He will definitely get more playing time than he would have got with 3rd place Lille.
We all hope that finally his third loan move will ripe the fruits which we all are hoping to taste. Let's be hopeful that this Black Zidane returns to Chelsea come May all polished and as bright as THE STAR, BALLCK DESCRIBED.
This is how Michael Ballack described this talent from France when he played shoulder to shoulder with him in the reserves game for Chelsea after coming out of injury. This is the same player for whom Chelsea dug deeper and deeper and went through many troubles to sign him and bring to Cobham. This is the same player which is (yes, "IS") dubbed as Black Zidane.
In case you still are unable to recall his name, to be honest, you are not the one to blamed. I will blame circumstances for that matter. His name is Gael Kakuta, Aged 20. Bought from Lens, the then manager of the club Marx was quoted as saying,
The easiest way to describe him is a phenomenon. Perhaps one criticism was that he didn't try very hard sometimes in training - because he didn't need to! He could already do everything.
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| Waiting For His Chance to Shine |
The player of his age who is full of trickery and talent had to endure whole of last year on the bench at two different clubs, waiting for the manager to call his name and stepping up on the field and show the world what he is made up off. but to his and everyone of us disappointment it didn't happen. and sad thing is people went to such an extent to call him flop and all the other rubbish.
Finally, as the calendar changed its year, he came back home to Chelsea and was immediately linked with a move to host of French clubs, particularly Dijon and Lille. And today he completed to shift his base temporarily to Dijon till the end of the season. Dijon is struggling in Ligue one at the moment, standing at 16th place and barely managing to stay out of relegation zone and still he chose to sign for them. and if you think of it, he was taken a right decision by joining such club. He will definitely get more playing time than he would have got with 3rd place Lille.
We all hope that finally his third loan move will ripe the fruits which we all are hoping to taste. Let's be hopeful that this Black Zidane returns to Chelsea come May all polished and as bright as THE STAR, BALLCK DESCRIBED.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Monday, 9 January 2012
Getting Robbed While Signing and Getting Robbed (Again) While Selling???
As the Janaury transfer window is upon us and rumour mill in full swing, every day we get to read this and that player being linked with Chelsea and certain someone being linked 'away' from Chelsea. In the latest trend we have seen Salomon Kalou, currently on his national duty with Ivory Coast for African Cup of Nations being (reportedly) targeted by Arsenal.
Kalou, who rarely has touched the green grass this season is out of contract come June. It is also said that concerned parties have failed in negotiations over extending his contract. This situation has presented a good opportunity for the interested parties to take him at cut-price deal in this window, one of them being our London rivals Arsenal. Wenger is said to be long admirer of Ivorian and wanted to lure him to Emirates couple of seasons back but failed that time.
I won't be surprised if Kalou follows Anelka's foot-steps and departs this month to join Arsenal or any other club for that matter. What bugs me off is that he will be sold (if that is the case) for mere £3million, that is one third of what we paid for his services back in 2006. The player has won 3 FA cups and a league title with us and has scored over 50 goals in the process.
I agree that considering his contract is expiring at the end of the season and being hardlt breaking into Starting XI; no club would be interested in paying handsome amount for him; but still he is proven goal scorer and has been really effective from the bench and will be good edition to any club; if not the best. and despite all this he might be sold for mere 3 million.
How many times it has happened that once Chelsea is interested in certain player his asking price gets inflated by leaps and bounds and when we sell the player, we always think that he could have been sold for little more for sure?
It really makes me wonder what our negotiators really do?? Has anyone got the answer of it??
As the Janaury transfer window is upon us and rumour mill in full swing, every day we get to read this and that player being linked with Chelsea and certain someone being linked 'away' from Chelsea. In the latest trend we have seen Salomon Kalou, currently on his national duty with Ivory Coast for African Cup of Nations being (reportedly) targeted by Arsenal.
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| Mere 3 million pounds? |
I won't be surprised if Kalou follows Anelka's foot-steps and departs this month to join Arsenal or any other club for that matter. What bugs me off is that he will be sold (if that is the case) for mere £3million, that is one third of what we paid for his services back in 2006. The player has won 3 FA cups and a league title with us and has scored over 50 goals in the process.
I agree that considering his contract is expiring at the end of the season and being hardlt breaking into Starting XI; no club would be interested in paying handsome amount for him; but still he is proven goal scorer and has been really effective from the bench and will be good edition to any club; if not the best. and despite all this he might be sold for mere 3 million.
How many times it has happened that once Chelsea is interested in certain player his asking price gets inflated by leaps and bounds and when we sell the player, we always think that he could have been sold for little more for sure?
It really makes me wonder what our negotiators really do?? Has anyone got the answer of it??
Monday, 2 January 2012
Arguably one of the most crucial games for AVB. With 3 points in the last 4 games this game is a 'must-win' for Villas Boas. Although, sacking AVB should and will be far from Roman Abrahmovich's mind he will keep an eye on results and will want to know how he can help the young Portuguese so that he can restore glory to a club that craves it.
Going into this game we are faced with some problems.
We have gone from being one of the most solid and compact defences in Europe to being one of the leakiest. David Luiz although has become more aware and defensively orientate, making less mistakes at the back giving JT to go on surging runs to pump speed into the game. Although, Bosingwa is not the player we bought few years back.
Also, Sturridge is doubtful with a slight injury but to be honest he has been the best Chelsea player this season without doubt. Ramires although, another player who can work some magic is back and his form is crucial for any success.
Here is my predicted line up for tonights game. We will play for the first time a 4-4-2 formation after the 4-3-3 has ceased to be effective recently.
---------------------------------------Cech----------------------------------------
----Ivanovic--------------Luiz---------------------JT----------------------A. Cole
--------------------------Meireless--------------Romeu------------------------
-----Mata------------------------------------------------------------Malouda-----
---------------------------Drogba---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------Torres----------------------------------
Subs: Lukaku, Ferreria, Bosingwa, Mikel, Lampard, McEachran and Bertrand
Should I have to predict this game, I would have to say that I see this going down as a victory. Chelsea should be able to sneak a win at 2-0. Torres would, in an ideal world, score the winner.
Romeu has been another fantastic find this season by AVB and continues to show great composure in midfield and Drogba will play behind Torres so that he can come and recieve the ball and play those killer passes and take those powerful shots.
The danger man in this game who can swing it in Wolves favor will be Steven Fletcher. The Scot is dangerous and can quickly pounce on a ball. Romeu will have to track him and limit the amount of service he gets from pacy wingers like Hammill, Hunt or the infamous Stephen Hunt.
Comment below what you feel.
Monday, 2 January 2012
Friday, 30 December 2011
We all follow it. The account updates us with all the latest official Chelsea news, as we all know. But sometimes, I think the account is short of something. What is it? The account doesn't communicate with anyone. I don't know whether they check their mention box or if they do, why they don't reply us. Certainly its crazy, or rather insane to be more elaborate, to reply all, but still the account can reply 20 mentions a day?
Chelsea was voted the most successful club in the Premier League in social activity in a poll recently, but that doesn't please us all. We depend on articles from our popular enemy, the media. Most of them consist of 99% crap, but we still have to rely on them. We don't know what goes on inside Cobham, but some unpopular stories arise from the media, reporting bust-ups which seem to be coming from nowhere, comes on our twitter timeline. We all expect someone to clear the air, and only some Chelsea official can do it. And who can do that in a better way? The Chelsea twitter account? Yes. But sometimes, we understand that privacy should be maintained and hence we dont mind when the twitter account doesnt reply to these rumors. Some of the rumors are brushed aside by our great manager, Villas Boas, himself in press conferences recently.
But the account can update us with the reserve matches, cant it? We dont get to see them all. But if we get minute to minute updates in all of those matches, we can surely enjoy it. Though they are covering the reserve matches recently, our official account's coverage of the games has been poor all-around. They even doesnt give you minute to minute updates of our first team games, so I can dream about quality coverage of the reserve matches.
All of us want the Chelsea twitter account to reach 1 million followers as fast as possible. They are on a mass-unfollowing spree at the moment, as you can see, they are now only following 122 people from more than 6k people. I hope Justin Bieber is one of those 122, which many of us hate to find it. I would even like to recommend our Chelsea twitter account to follow a pornstar, instead of Justin Bieber. But oh wait, its their twitter!!
You can slate me, if I have irked you with this post, but I have been straightforward with this article, and had spoken my heart out. Up The Chels..
If you liked this article, you can follow me on twitter, @ChelseaViewer.
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Firstly, lets face the facts that we have lost a good back up striker in Anelka. However, let us also remember that right behind him is Romelu Lukaku who is raring to go and make his mark and the departure of "Le Sulk" will give him an oppurtunity to shine.
Also, for those fans who are not aware of this, we have already have one player who will join us in January. Lucas Piazon. For those who haven't heard his name before he is a 17 year old player who joins us from Sao Paolo and looks and plays just like Ricardo Kaka. He joins us the day he turns 18, should he impress AVB in training then this young man could be in line for some appearances.
Didier Drogba, the great, is rumored to leave the club as he is not being offered the contract extension he wants. Should Drogba leave there is no need to replace him as we have a superstar striker , Fernando Torres, ready to replace him in the 4-3-3. Drogba and Kalou will also be leaving during January and February for the African Cup of Nations and so Torres should be raring to go, all he needs is that one goal to get past the barrier.
On the other hand, with the handing in of transfer requests from players like Alex we are now faced with a defensive crisis. If possible, I would say recall Jeffery Bruma who is on loan at Hamburg. He has a great chemistry with JT as we have seen on a few occasions. Playing in the top division for half of the season will have given him some vital experience and it is time we throw him into the starting line up and see the results. Otherwise, we need to sign a Centre Back. That is priority and the name touted and seeming likely for this position is Gary Cahill.
Apart from a Centre Back we need a new right back. Ivanovic doesn't cut it and Bosingwa forgets to defend as he is often completely focused on attacking. We need a world class right back who can do both. Gregory Van Der Wiel is a name being suggested for this, doesn't matter who but we need someone who is a proven and young right back. Also we need to get some more players to provide back up along the defence as we have a old group of players in this group providing back up such as Ferreria who need to go now.
If I were AVB I would also look at signing another midfielder who can play his style of Football and to be a long-term replacement for Frank Lampard. Lampard is on the decline and there is now a need, greater than ever, to replace him. Javier Pastore who rejected Chelsea for big bucks at PSG is unsettled and is looking for a move to London, or Moutinho who AVB managed at Porto, maybe even players such as Gaston Ramirez. But maybe AVB will choose to go for Josh McEachran and give him a shot and making a name for himself.
It is clear that AVB has a wishlist and needs to bring in some players. The priority is at least two defenders to make solid that back line and give us some new faces to provide good cover in those positions. A new midfielder along with Piazon for the first team would be great so that they can be groomed by AVB for his style of Football. A new striker is not needed, with Lukaku waiting in the lines he is a player who Chelsea Fans can rely on for the next decade or so and all he needs is a chance.
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Ramires, leading from the front
Last year the season began with our most notable signing, Ramires, failing to shine. For some fans it looked as if it was going to be another big money flop. However, this year Ramires has led the club from the front and has gone from strength to strength.
Villas-Boas is one manager who knows Ramires well from his time in Portugal. He had heard and seen a lot of Ramires and even played against him and was aware of the Brazilian midfielder as he helped Benfica to their title. AVB knew what to do to bring out the best in Ramires, a player who had attracted attention from the likes of Barcelona after just a season in Portugal.
Ramires, started improving last year after New Years and put together some brilliant performances and goals including the goal of the season against Manchester City. Now the Brazilian has settled into the hearts of the Chelsea fans and is now nicknamed Rambo for his tenacious speed and strength.
Yet, it is this season under AVB that Ramires has truly 'terrorized' the opposition. Yesterday against Everton he marked his 50th appearance for the Blues with a goal.
This year Ramires has used his tenacious speed to break away from the opposition defences as Lampard and Mata feed him with brilliant over head balls. The Brazilian has broken away several times to score goals and to earn the team penalties.
He was instrumental as Chelsea kicked into gear and turned on the style against Swansea, Bolton and Everton. His brilliant distribution of the ball and making quick passes has meant that has allowed some players to play more freely.
AVB has been key, by bringing Ramires, Mata and Sturridge together he has been able to accelerate Chelsea's rate of play. Ramires is always breaking on counter attacks which have allowed us to score some great goals moving from one box to another in a matter of mere minutes.
Last year Ramires made Chelsea fans happy with a few goals. But having already scored more than he did last season Ramires is reminding Chelsea fans that there is more to come from the skinny, yet powerful Brazilian midfielder. Ramires is looking like a player who will long reign at Chelsea and in the Premier League and will definitely become one of the greats.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Saturday, 24 September 2011
 |
| Copyright The Telegraph |
THIS POST IS IN NO SHAPE OR FORM SHOWING ANY DISAPPROVAL OF ANDRE' VILLAS- BOAS.
Roman Abrahmovich is a one of a kind Football Club owner who has poured almost 1 billion clubs into Chelsea to turn it into one of the greatest teams in Europe in a matter of 10 years. His decision to hire AVB can be seen as a change in his perspective.
Roman is not the man to shell out 15 million to hire a young manager and then sack him; it is clear to be seen for us fans that Abrahmovich wants to support AVB in building a successful 'empire' so to speak at Chelsea, similar to what Sir Alex has done at Manchester United with great success.
While AVB is a great manager this article is not about hiring him or his progress, it is about Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian was a breath of fresh air at Chelsea with his attacking style of play and strong defense which saw us score 106 goals in his first season. However, Ancelotti was on a different page. His philosophy was based largely around using the older players and the 'Milan Lab' theory to prolong the careers of the experienced players and bring as much out of them as possible.
Ancelotti made his last play in the transfer market in January when he splashed out 75 million to bring Fernando Torres and David Luiz to the club. However, his results disappointing in the second half of the season.
Had Ancelotti been given one more year I am sure he would have revamped the club and his positive relationship with existing players would have meant that his ideas of attacking football would have remained. Ancelotti is a proven manager and Abrahmovich knows that for sure, having had many conversations with him on Football even before the Italian was made manager.
AVB and Ancelotti both have the same ideology in the sense that they want to get as much from the experienced players as possible but also want to groom younger players. Ancelotti would have done the same AVB is doing now.
AVB has made a positive start but I know he will not be sacked at the end of the season, whatever the result because Roman wants to create a winning mentality at the club that will only come with stability. Ancelotti lost his job not because his results were failing but because Roman knew he wouldn't have stayed at the club for long anyways. With AVB Roman has the assurance that he will stay at the club for 10 - 20 years, provided the club is successful.
So in hindsight we could have done without sacking Ancelotti and we have definitely still won trophies, but AVB was what Roman was waiting for, for so long.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Monday, 12 September 2011
"Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the beautiful among all?"
Certainly, this can be a line from the fairytale, 'Snow White and Seven Dwarfs', and if you ask any Chelsea girl, that who is the most handsome player in the squad, they will say Fernando Torres. But looks dont count on football (except for merchandise and promotion purposes), rather beauty in football counts. Torres is handsome! Ok! His game is beautiful too! But not his form. I am not bothered by his lack of goals, whilst Spain coach Del Bosque and the media are, as long as my team is winning. To me, Chelsea matters more, and not Torres or any individual in the squad.
Fernando Torres risked the wrath of the Chelsea Old Guard by branding them slow and inefficient, as he tries to offload some of his critics from his back. From the helm of Mourinho to Torres' £50m arrival, Chelsea largely depended on Didier Drogba's physique and Frank Lampard's goals. The system worked, and it yielded Chelsea 3 league titles (along with other notables), and established Chelsea as one of the most powerful and feared clubs in England, as well as in Europe. Needless to say, even till now, the 'slow' and so-called 'inefficient' Lampard can pick a pass or which turns out to be an assist for Drogbas, Anelkas, Maloudas, Kalous, or any player in the squad, who was a part of the squad before Torres' arrival. But I dont understand why those balls dont reach Torres!
Goals do come from the Old Guard, as well as character, even till now. Then why are we blaming the system which had been our mainstay for these past years? And why are we blaming our players for not feeding up Torres with passes and crosses? Is Torres more important than Chelsea now? Certainly, Torres is more important than Chelsea, to those gloryhunters who had joined our bandwagon after Torres arrived. If you had seen Lukaku playing against Norwich City, you would have seen him getting more chances than Torres got, as Lukaku's playing style is more like that of Drogba. Torres cost us £50m, and for him we bought Mata for another £25m and we indulged ourselves in Modric saga until the summer transfer deadline. Now what more if Torres doesnt score?
Some people are suggesting to bench the Old Guard and rope in a lineup mastered by our young players. Certainly that can increase our game's speed and creativity in the centre of the park, but it will lack determination, inspiration, character and leadership, which are ideal things to glory for any team. We have seen in recent years, how Arsenal had stumbled due to lack of those attributes and I fear the same fate for us, if we change the system for Torres. And our new manager cant save us then. The team can lack a calm penalty-taker, who can slot it into the net even in the 90th minute, when the team isnt in a winning position, or the team can lack a leader who can roar loudly to his teammates to show the character for winning the game. The gloryhunters will leave us as usual then, when there will be no glory.
Torres can be a star, and a great talented footballer, but his misfiring doesnt mean our system is to be blamed. In other words, he aint fitted to our pristine system, with this presence of him, which made us 'Chelsea' today. To change the whole squad, a transition is needed. But to choose the path of transition is a way of gambling, as consequences are unknown. I dont know how much helpful it will be, by changing the system for Torres, but I would rather want Torres to adapt to our system.
I have not criticised Torres in this article, as I am not a gloryhunter and I am against the idea of criticizing my own players, but I urge all of you, readers, to think it otherwise that our system aint wrong, despite being 'slow' and 'old'.
Somewhere down a lane of mind, a line is budging me.....
'Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the £50m of all?'
Written By: Prad Ghosh (ChelseaViewer)
Join my Chelsea page on Facebook: We r frm Stamford Bridge, we r frm Chelsea
Monday, 12 September 2011
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
The summer transfer window will close tomorrow, and media, clubs and their eager fans are getting very keen to know, who will come to their clubs in the fianl two days. Chelsea, as always under Roman Abramovich, had been a significant club under the watchful eyes of the media in the transfer windows. In the notable last transfer window, we bagged Fernando Torres from Liverpool and David Luiz from Benfica in the dying hours.
Similarly, we are quite busy in this window too as it seems now. The recruitments of Courtois, Romeu, Lukaku, Mata, Davilla are aint quite enough to Villas Boas as rumours suggest, as he is in a pursuit of Modric, Perreira, etc.
Many sources, even a suspectable, unverified twitter handle which claimed to be of Alvaro Perreira's, announced that the Uruguayan is heading to Stamford Bridge.
But many Chelsea fans seem to be very reluctant to welcome the wing-back to the club, as they are claiming, that Chelsea already have Ashley Cole, Ryan Bertrand, Patrick van Aanholt for the left-back spot. Rather they want a flying right-sided player. It is surely acceptable, that, while Cole is ageing, it will be more encouraging to see Bertrand or van Aanholt to fill in his boots. If it happens, then we wont have to think about that spot for a decade or so, as they are young, combined with the fact, that they are homegrown and will reduce some total wages (if we dont buy a left-back).
But, you and me aint Andre Villas Boas! We dont know, how will he line up Perreira, if he does get his services in the next two days. Our past managers had been different. Back in the times of Claudio Ranieri, teams generally used to play in a basic 4-4-2. And so every team needed wingers. All teams had wingers in their arsenal, and notably we had Damien Duff, Jesper Gronkjæer, Mario Stanic, and Geremi and Joe Cole in a way too. Mourinho relied on width more than Ranieri did, and so he had the likes of Duff and Robben, who were lethal against any opposition. After the departures of Duff and Robben, we really lacked width over the years.
Managers like Grant, Scolari, Hiddink and even Ancelotti depended much on his midfielders to win games for them. That idea worked in a different way and it did give Carlo a double in his 1st year in charge. But as soon as we became predictable for the lack of width, our juggernaut of prevailing over other teams was checked, which ultimately did cost Carlo his job.
In the most part of the last season, Ancelotti stuck to a basic 4-3-3, and he didnt change that formation, even when was loosing during the match. He replaced man to man, like strikers for strikers, holding midfielders for holding midfielders. Elsewhere, the scenario was quite different when it came to AVB's job as a Chelsea manager. For instance, we fell behind to West Brom in our first home game, and AVB reacted quickly after half an hour, by changing the formation and bringing on Malouda, instead of Kalou, which ultimately resulted being fruitful.
Alvaro Perreira is undoubtedly an AVB man. He was an important member of his treble winning squad last year at FC Porto. Villla Boas usually used him as a left-back or a left-midfielder, but never used him in the forwards of his favoured 4-3-3. Perreira's position is the same in the Uruguay team also. But, we never know what AVB is gonna do with him. Perreira has a good agility (which is better than Malouda) and can deliver some pin-point crosses into the box without taking much time (which can fuel Torres). Many suggest Perreira is a replacement for the current Anzhi winger Yuri Zhirkov at Chelsea, while at the same time they think that Zhirkov was better than Perreira. In my opinion, Perreira is a Uruguayan and played in Portugal, where conditions dont really differ much to that of England's. Being a Russian, Zhirkov never really adapted to the England atmosphere, but on the other hand, i believe, Perreira can.
Villa Boas is currently in the pursuit of a Modric, but if he fails to recruit him (or a player like him), he will have the same creative problems. In that case, who knows that our manager can use Mata as the 'Modric' while pushing Perreira up in the forward line, where the latter hadnt been tested yet? AVB is promising and we all expect him to be experimental. Roman Abramovich has more faith in him, so I can see Perreira to be used as a winger more often, rather than to be as a left-back or left midfielder, if he does complete his move to Chelsea.
Written By: Prad Ghosh (ChelseaViewer)
Join my Chelsea page on Facebook: We r frm Stamford Bridge, we r frm Chelsea
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
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